The present invention relates to a polysaccharide composition or polysaccharide having heparinoid activity, obtained from green algae belonging to Codiaceae of Codiales, a process for producing said composition or polysaccharide, and a coagulant containing said composition or polysaccharide as an active ingredient.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Substances having heparinoid activity, show an action of inhibiting coagulation of blood or an action of clearing lipid in blood. Therefore, these substances are used for remedy of various diseases. As such substances having heparinoid activity, there have hitherto been known heparin, sulfated polysaccharides such as the sodium salt of dextran sulfate and the like.
These conventional substances having a heparinoid activity, however, have drawbacks. Heparin has problems, for example, in that (1) it must be extracted from internal organs of higher animals, etc. and purified and accordingly the production is difficult and (2) the heparin obtained has a non-uniform activity; and the sodium salt of dextran sulfate has problems, for example, in production and weak heparinoid activity. Hence, it has been desired to develop and provide a novel substance having an effective heparinoid activity.
Meanwhile, it is well known that fucoidan sulfate which is obtained from brown algae and which is a polysaccharide sulfate composed mainly of L-fucose, has heparinoid activity. A rhamnan sulfate having strong heparinoid activity, obtained from green algae belonging to Monostroma genus, was found by the research based on the above knowledge and a patent application was filed therefor (Japanese Patent Publication No. 235301/1988).
Japan and some countries are completely surrounded by the sea, and algae such as green algae and the like are abundant in the sea. It is an object of the present invention to provide a polysaccharide composition or polysaccharide other than said rhamnan sulfate, having strong heparinoid activity, obtained from green algae and also to utilize the green algae effectively.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a process for producing said polysaccharide composition or polysaccharide without causing the above-mentioned problems possessed by the process for producing heparin or sodium dextran sulfate, and also to provide useful application of said polysaccharide composition or polysaccharide.